Bus ad shows wanted terrorists

Last Tuesday evening on University Way, I noticed a large poster stretching virtually the entire length of a double-long Metro bus.

The poster featured a row of faces of men clearly of Arabic descent or Islamic heritage. Beneath this row of individuals was, in huge letters, the phrase “These are the faces of global terrorism.”

I didn’t recognize any of the “terrorists,” assuming the pictures were actually of terrorists. What I saw was a row of men representative of millions of people living their lives peacefully, from Afghanistan to Seattle.

More to the point, what I saw was a slanderous depiction of an entire population.

I was appalled and embarrassed that Metro Transit would permit such an incendiary poster on its buses. Imagine a poster in Cairo with a string of serial killers from the United States with the caption, “These are the faces of U.S. murderers.” Imagine how a 12-year-old child from New Jersey would feel about such a poster while on vacation in Egypt.

What qualifies as a hate crime if not this thoughtlessly committed act by the Metro Transit?

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